Sheep magazine Archive 2: issues 10-17

Great Zimbabwe’s prosperity came from its position on the route between
the gold producing regions of the area and ports on the Mozambique
coast; over time it became the heart of an extensive commercial and
trading network. The main trading items ranged from gold, ivory, copper
and tin to cattle and cowrie shells. Imported items discovered in the ruins
have included glassware from Syria, a minted coin from Kilwa, and
assorted Persian and Chinese ceramics.
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The period of prosperity at Great Zimbabwe continued until the mid-15th
century, when the city’s trading activity started to decline and its people
began to migrate elsewhere. The most common hypothesis to explain
the abandonment of the site is a shortage of food, pastures and natural
resources in Great Zimbabwe and its immediate surroundings. But the
precise cause remains unclear.
Great Zimbabwe is a fusion of manmade and natural beauty; a complex
of 12 groups of buildings spread over 80 stunning hectares of the
Mutirikwi valley. In the words of the Zimbabwean archaeologist and
art historian Peter Garlake, the site displays “an architecture that was
unparalleled elsewhere in Africa or beyond”.
The ruins are divided into three main architectural zones: the Hill
Complex, the Great Enclosure and the Valley Complex. The oldest, the
Hill Complex, was occupied from the ninth to the 13th centuries. Believed
to have been the spiritual and religious centre of the city, its ruins extend
some 100 metres by 45 metres.
SHEEP IN THE ROAD : NUMBER 15